Earlier this week, Chelsea Clinton revealed that she was pregnant. Before that announcement, in the current issue of The Washington Monthly, Haley Sweetland Edwards had speculated about how such an announcement would play out amongst the Hillary-haters:
Of course, regardless of how deftly she plays her new role, Hillary’s many critics will complain. They will accuse her of using the child as a campaign tool, and any references to her adorable grandkid will be marshaled as further proof that she is the most calculating person in politics. Indeed, because she’s a Clinton, and hence presumed by many on the right to be capable of anything, we can expect all kinds of conspiratorial accusations, especially among our unhinged friends on right-wing radio. Did she pressure Chelsea to have that baby? How was it that the timing so perfectly coincided with the 2016 election? Did Bill and Hillary have their daughter artificially inseminated?
Well, it’s funny Haley should mention that. Because on the very same day Chelsea made her announcement, a brand spanking new wingnut industry was born: the Hillary Clinton grandbaby truthers! Take it away, Talking Points Memo:
Newsmax host Steve Malzberg on Thursday speculated that Chelsea Clinton’s pregnancy was no accident, and that Hillary Clinton’s grandchild would arrive just in time to serve as a “prop” for a widely expected 2016 presidential run.
“Now pardon the skeptic in me,” Malzberg said. “Oh I can see Media Matters, I can see everybody going crazy on me now. Malzberg thinks this was a staged, planned pregnancy?”
“Well, now I’m not saying, when I say staged I have to believe she’s pregnant, if she says she’s pregnant,” he continued. “I don’t mean that they’re making up she’s pregnant. But what great timing! I mean purely accidental, purely an act of nature, purely just left up to God.”
“And God answered Hillary Clinton’s prayers and she’s going to have the prop of being a new grandma while she runs for president,” he added. “It just warms the heart, it brings a tear to my eye. It really does.”
You know, if Hillary Clinton really were such a scheming, Machiavellian genius, you’d think she’d be president by now, right?
There definitely is something about Hillary Clinton that brings out the crazy on the right. Probably it boils down to nothing more than being a Democrat with XX chromosomes. At any rate, expect Hillary derangement syndrome to ratchet up the closer we get to Election Day, 2016 (assuming she runs) and for it to become a cottage industry after that (assuming she wins).
UPDATE: Here’s another Hillary grandbaby truther. No doubt there are countless more.
